House Republicans Push Bill To Stop Biden Admin From Outsourcing Censorship To Tech Companies
House Republicans are pushing for new legislation to prevent the Biden administration from easing social media censorship to undermine federal employees who use their positions to influence the actions of tech companies.
The Freedom from Government Interference Act aims to prevent the government from transferring free speech violations to technology platforms by creating new prohibitions and penalties for federal employees who promote censorship.
With more people flocking to tech platforms to communicate and gather information, Republicans want to prevent Democrats from pushing back on social media companies and censoring people online. Kentucky representatives James Comer, Katie McMorris Rogers de Washington and Jim Jordan de l'Ohio, the main Republicans of the House and traditional control and oversight committees.
"The Biden administration is using the heavy hand of government to pressure social media companies to censor free speech and the news Americans post on their platforms," Kommer said in a statement Wednesday. "From COVID-19 to Hunter Biden, Biden administration officials are quick to label facts that don't fit their narrative as misinformation, then pressure social media companies to block content on their platforms."
The bill seeks to prevent federal officials from advocating individual censorship or interference with speech. Penalties for violating the law include a range of civil fines and removal from federal service, according to the law's sponsors, consistent with existing penalties for federal officials who engage in political activity in general.
"Major tech hubs have become modern city squares, and trying to remove people from these digital spaces simply because they don't hold a liberal agenda is unconstitutional," Rogers said.
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The pressure that federal officials put on tech companies to shape the digital discourse is well documented. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters last year that the administration "regularly monitors social media platforms to stay abreast of the latest public health messages."
In August, author Alex Berenson posted internal messages on Twitter showing that the Biden administration personally pushed the social media platform to fire him before the company issued a ban.
Posts on Twitter showed staffers discussing the meeting with President Biden's team, with one staffer saying the White House asked the tough question about why Berenson hasn't been banned yet. Berenson, a prominent critic of the U.S. response to COVID-19, said in a Twitter comment that he had received internal communications as part of the lawsuit.
More recently, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told broadcaster Joe Rogan last week that Facebook had limited negative coverage of Hunter Biden before the 2020 election following a general warning from the FBI about Russian propaganda.
The FBI later said it would provide companies and technology platforms with indicators of outside threats, but the bureau would not have the authority to command or order companies to take action. Facebook's parent company, Meta, also downplayed the CEO's comments, saying the FBI's warning was general and had "nothing specific about Hunter Biden."
More details about the federal government's private lobbying campaigns on social media companies may soon be available. Republican Senators Charles E.
Twitter and Facebook are not the only companies receiving notice from the government. Ahead of the 2020 election, a number of tech companies have acknowledged meeting with national security and federal law enforcement agencies. Among these leaders were representatives from Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, Verizon and the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia.
